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Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Illustrator), Jay Rubin (Translator), Haruki Murakami (Introduction), Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 3,164 ratings · 219 reviews

This collection features a brilliant new translation of the Japanese master's stories, from the source for the movie Rashomon to his later, more autobiographical writings.

Ryünosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan’s foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. ‘Rashömon’ and ‘In a B...more

Paperback, 268 pages

Published October 31st 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published 1915)

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Feb 12, 2012 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

Here is the answer to the obvious question, which I call obvious because of the fact that I thought it, s. commented below asking about it, and my guess is that more will come. So, let me clarify...umm, sort of.

It's a little confusing, actually. The Akutagawa story In a Grove, which is in this particular Akutagawa collection, was the basis for the Kurosawa film Rashōmon. The Akutagawa story Rashōmon--which is also in this collection and by the same author, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa--shares no similari...more

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Feb 08, 2010 Kimley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, japanese-lit

Obviously the difficulty of rating collections of stories is the fact that they don't necessarily all rate equally. About a third of these stories are easily knock-out 5-star fantastic. The other two-thirds I'd rate mostly 4 stars with a few 3 stars. All worth reading and in general I think this is probably a good intro to Akutagawa's work in that it contains a nice cross-section of his work from the earliest historical stories to his later primarily autobiographical stories.

I personally preferr...more Obviously the difficulty of rating collections of stories is the fact that they don't necessarily all rate equally. About a third of these stories are easily knock-out 5-star fantastic. The other two-thirds I'd rate mostly 4 stars with a few 3 stars. All worth reading and in general I think this is probably a good intro to Akutagawa's work in that it contains a nice cross-section of his work from the earliest historical stories to his later primarily autobiographical stories.

I personally preferred the earlier stories which ranged from tales of Samurai warriors and Shoguns and stories of religious persecution when Christianity was making inroads in Japan to satyrical stories about unfortunates with big noses.* While the settings are completely foreign to me, the characters are people I know all too well. My favorite story being "Hell Screen" in which an egotistical painter is commissioned to paint a screen depicting the horrors of hell. In order to sketch the scenes, he puts his assistants through a myriad of tortures and all I'll add in an effort to not give too much away is that karma is a bitch! These early stories have an almost Victorian gothic creepiness to them but it's a bit more subtle and far more insidious in that it seems infinitely more real. And Akutagawa has a nice dollop of humor running throughout these early stories as well.

The later autobiographical stories in which he writes of his mother who went mad, of his infidelities and his fear of going mad himself and his increasing depression that led to his eventual suicide are painful to read in how human and easy to relate to they are. But having read Dazai's similarly themed autobiographical stories not too long ago, Akutagawa didn't have quite the gut punch that Dazai had for me. Akutagawa's story "The Spinning Gears" was the best of the autobiographical bunch for me. Throughout, he continues to have visions of gears that nearly block out his vision. Those of us who have the luxury to think about life beyond just worrying about food and shelter can probably all relate to this nightmare of the cogs of life just taking over. The horror element of his earlier stories definitely comes into play here.

There's a slightly strange intro to this collection by Haruki Murakami which is far more critical of Akutagawa's work than I might have expected though it did seem like a relatively fair critique. I'm glad I read it after reading the stories though.

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*When I studied Chinese, my teachers were all native Chinese, mostly on exchange and when we learned the word for "nose" we also learned that Americans are frequently called "big nose" so I had a good chuckle seeing that the Japanese are equally amused by big noses.(less)

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Jul 31, 2010 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I read my first Murakami, a compilation of short stories called "After the Quake," I was amazed by his refreshing originality. Some of his stories, indeed, had the effect of an earthquake to me. There were jolting, sudden and unexpected turns. In one, a man and a woman, after a brief introduction, make love. Then, out of nowhere, the man felt a sudden impulse to kill her. In another story, the characters were on a beach. Tears suddenly flow down from the eyes of one character, then they tal...more When I read my first Murakami, a compilation of short stories called "After the Quake," I was amazed by his refreshing originality. Some of his stories, indeed, had the effect of an earthquake to me. There were jolting, sudden and unexpected turns. In one, a man and a woman, after a brief introduction, make love. Then, out of nowhere, the man felt a sudden impulse to kill her. In another story, the characters were on a beach. Tears suddenly flow down from the eyes of one character, then they talk of killing themselves. Developments like these come without warning as they were not even hinted in the previous narration.

Now, it can be told. This style of storytelling is not at all original. Murakami, I think, copied it from this great Japanese writer who killed himself in 1927 at the age of 35--Ryunosuke Akutagawa (in the list of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die he's under letter "R"--a mistake, because his surname is Akutagawa, not Ryunosuke). By his own confession, Murakami has been reading Akutagawa since he was a teenager.

I bet that if one includes Rashomon in that compilation "After the Quake" an uninitiated reader will not find any difference between it and the rest of the stories there except that the latter have modern settings while "Rashomon" is set in 12th century Japan.

"Rashomon" ("Mon" being the Japanese for gate) was an outer castle gate, specifically the great southern main entrance to Kyoto during the Heian Period. It had massive pillars, towering archways and several chambers. The whole city of Kyoto, at the time of the story, was under civil unrest. People were hungry, even the Rashomon itself had become dilapidated for lack of proper maintenance. In the upper chamber thereof was dumped the city's dead, the victims of the prevailing hunger and violence.

In the lower chamber sits a servant who had just lost his job. He is said to be waiting for the rain to stop but he knows that even if the rain stops he really has nowhere to go and nothing to do. He had come to the dreadful conclusion that he would either die of starvation or survive by being a thief.

The mood is somber, the descriptive prose is elegant, fluid and spontaneous. Just like Murakami (in his short stories). Then the servant sees something...Thereafter comes one event after another which felt like Murakami's earthquakes, with a similar ending that leaves unanswered questions.

In the Introduction to the life and works of Akutagawa a Japanese literary critic, in 1917, described him (Akutagawa) as "a writer who can't write without props." I was amused by this because elsewhere in goodreads before, discussing Kafka on the Shore with a Murakami fanatic K.D., I wrote that Murakami had used a lot of juvenile, ineffective props here (like talking cats, mother and son fucking, eels falling down from the sky, etc.) which were not even original as you can see parallels from Greek mythology and even in works of Lewis Carroll.

The Introduction also declared:

"Sheer technique...though skillfully applied, does not necessarily translate into original literature. A fictional world that was not truly (the author's) own and that used borrowed containers would eventually reach and impasse and come to stand in his way like a high wall. Further pursuit of fictional method could only yield technical polish. And not surprisingly, the novelty would wear thin and readers would tire of seeing the same devices."

Wow, I myself could have said this after reading Kafka on the Shore! Now, guess who wrote this introduction? Close your eyes and bang your head on the wall--Haruki Murakami himself.

LOL!(less)

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May 04, 2013 Ran Pravithana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asian, novel-literature

ในบรรดานักเขียนญี่ปุ่นทุกคนที่ผมเคยอ่าน ผมนับว่าริวโนสุเกะ อาคุตะกะวะเป็นอัจฉริยะในหมู่อัจฉริยะ
แต่ไม่ใช่ว่าคนทุกคนจะชอบสไตล์งานเขียนของอาคุตะกาว่า เพราะสไตล์เรื่องสั้นของเขาหลายครั้งเป็นงานเขียนที่ดึงเอาด้านมืดของจิตใจมนุษย์มาโยนใส่หน้าคนอ่านแบบไม่มีการประณีประนอม สร้าง ethical paradox พร้อมเปิดช่องให้ผู้อ่านตีความบทประพันธ์เอาเอง ซึ่งจะพบได้ในเรื่องสั้นหลายเรื่องของหนังสือเล่มนี้ (ในป่าละเมาะ, ฉากนรก)
(ผมคิดเอาเองว่าแนวการเขียนรูปแบบนี้เป็นเหมือนรากของงานเขียนในยุคหลังๆ จำพวก postmodernism ที่ผู...more ในบรรดานักเขียนญี่ปุ่นทุกคนที่ผมเคยอ่าน ผมนับว่าริวโนสุเกะ อาคุตะกะวะเป็นอัจฉริยะในหมู่อัจฉริยะ
แต่ไม่ใช่ว่าคนทุกคนจะชอบสไตล์งานเขียนของอาคุตะกาว่า เพราะสไตล์เรื่องสั้นของเขาหลายครั้งเป็นงานเขียนที่ดึงเอาด้านมืดของจิตใจมนุษย์มาโยนใส่หน้าคนอ่านแบบไม่มีการประณีประนอม สร้าง ethical paradox พร้อมเปิดช่องให้ผู้อ่านตีความบทประพันธ์เอาเอง ซึ่งจะพบได้ในเรื่องสั้นหลายเรื่องของหนังสือเล่มนี้ (ในป่าละเมาะ, ฉากนรก)
(ผมคิดเอาเองว่าแนวการเขียนรูปแบบนี้เป็นเหมือนรากของงานเขียนในยุคหลังๆ จำพวก postmodernism ที่ผู้อ่านเป็นผู้กำหนดความหมายของวรรณกรรม เช่นในผลงานหลากหลายเรื่องของมูราคามิ)

หนังสือของไทยมีชื่อว่า ราโชมอนและเรื่องสั้นอื่นๆ ซึ่งมีเรื่องสั้นเพียง 5 เรื่องในเล่ม (ราโชมอน, ในป่าละเมาะ, ใยแมงมุม, จมูก, ฉากนรก)

ในป่าละเมาะ (In the Grove, 藪の中) เป็นเรื่องสั้นที่น่าจะเป็นที่รู้จักกันมากที่สุด เพราะอากิระ คุโรซาว่า ผู้กำกับชื่อดังได้นำไปสร้างเป็นภาพยนตร์ชื่อราโชมอน (หลังจากนั้นด้วยความแนวของบทหนัง ราโชมอนได้ถูกนำไปรีเมคเป็นภาพยนตร์ฮอลิวู้ดชื่อ The Outrage และล่าสุดม.ล.พันธุ์เทวนพ เทวกุลก็นำเนื้อหาของราโชมอนมาดัดแปลงเป็นภาพยนตร์ไทยที่ชื่อว่าอุโมงค์ผาเมือง)
ในป่าละเมาะเล่าเรื่องราวการฆาตกรรมจากมุมมองของผู้อยู่ในเหตุการณ์หลายคน แต่เรื่องราวที่เล่าออกจากปากกลับแตกต่างกันไปคนละทาง เรื่องราวแบบปลายเปิดไร้การคลี่คลายในตอนจบ เป็นงานเขียนที่เรียบง่ายแต่ทรงพลัง ตีแผ่ธรรมชาติด้านลบของจิตใจมนุษย์ได้อย่างตรงไปตรงมา

(ผมชอบเรื่องสั้นของอาคุตะกะวะเรื่องนี้มากกว่าบทภาพยนตร์ที่ถูกดัดแปลงโดยอากิระ คุโรซาว่าเสียอีก คุโรซาว่ามีมุมมองจิตใจมนุษย์ในด้านบวก ส่วนอาคุตะกะวะเป็นด้านลบ ทำให้หนังราโชมอนของคุโรซาว่ามีสเน่ห์น่าสนใจว่าผู้กำกับที่มองโลกในแง่ดี จะตีความเรื่องราวของนักเขียนที่มองโลกในแง่ร้ายได้อย่างไร)

แต่ในบรรดาเรื่องสั้น 5 เรื่องในหนังสือเล่มนี้ ผมกลับชอบฉากนรก (Hell Screen, 地獄変) มากที่สุด ฉากนรกเป็นเรื่องสั้นที่พูดถึงจิตกรเอกที่ไม่สามารถวาดภาพที่สมจริงได้หากไม่เห็นภาพเหตุการณ์จริงเกิดขึ้นตรงหน้า และเมื่อจิตกรได้รับโจทย์จากมหาเสนาบดีให้วาดภาพนรก การทิ้งจิตวิญญาณความเป็นมนุษย์เพื่อสร้างสรรค์งานศิลปะจึงทำให้เกิดโศกนาฏกรรมที่น่าสยดสยอง

**spoiler alert**
แอบรู้สึกไปว่าในเรื่องฉากนรก จิตกรเอกโยชิฮิเดะเป็นเหมือนกับภาพสะท้อนตัวตนของอาคุตะกะวะ ความคลั่งไคล้ในงานศิลปะแบบถอนตัวไม่ขึ้น ความหลงไหลระดับที่ยอมให้สิ่งที่มีค่ามากที่สุดในชีวิตของตัวถูกเผาไหม้เพื่อแลกกับการสร้างผลงานชิ้นเอก สำหรับโยชิฮิเดะ สิ่งนั้นคือบุตรสาว ส่วนของตัวอาคุตะกะวะ สิ่งนั้นคือจิตวิญญาณ
ความโหดร้ายที่เกินจะรับได้ของโยชิฮิเดะในตอนท้ายเรื่องนั้นความจริงอาจเป็นเพียงการอุทิศทุกสิ่งทุกอย่างในชีวิตเพื่อแลกมาซึ่งผลงานอมตะเหมือนตัวอาคุตะกะวะ

และบทสุดท้ายของโยชิฮิเดะนั้นก็ปิดลงเหมือนกับบั้นปลายชีวิตของอาคุตะกะวะเช่นกัน(less)

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Feb 15, 2010 Harun Harahap rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: punya, fiksi, terjemahan

Rashomon: Kejahatan seperti lingkaran setan yang hanya akan terputus oleh kebaikan.

Di dalam belukar: Kebenaran dan keadilan adalah hal yang semu dan relatif.

Kappa: Lihatlah kehidupan manusia dari sudut pandang bukan manusia, lalu kau akan lihat betapa menjijikkan manusia itu

Bubur ubi: Miskin harta lebih baik asalkan hidup dapat dijalani dengan tenang.

Benang laba-laba: Keserakahan membuat rejeki didepan mata akan musnah seketika.

Si putih: Cermati lebih baik dibalik sebuah kebaikan.

Hidung: Bersyuk...more

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Oct 20, 2008 Mona rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First, I am a big fan of Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Second, Akutagawa himself has been acknowledged as one of the greatest Japanese writers.

Third, the story "Rashomon" has been admitted as the best story Akutagawa ever wrote. That's why Akira Kurosawa transfered the story into reel.

So, none other reason needed to make you read this one.

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Jan 12, 2012 Tfitoby rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit, short-stories, translation

They say Akutagawa is a master of modern Japanese literature despite writing just after the turn of the 20th century, he even has major literary awards named after him in Japan but I can't help but feel that 100 year old stories are not that modern. That being said his stories are largely enjoyable and very well written.

The effect of the unique storytelling point of view of In A Grove is really quite remarkable and the rest of the stories collected here all manage to conjure up a firm and believ...more

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Oct 23, 2010 Parrish Lantern rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rashomon & 17 other stories

Ryunosuke Akutugawa is generally regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story" of which he wrote approximately a hundred, before taking his own life at the age of 35, he also has Japan's most famous Literary prize named after him (Akutagawa Prize) . Born in Tokyo in 1892 & raised by a family steeped in traditional Japanese culture, by a young age had mastered English, before going on to excel as a student in his country's top educational establishments...more

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Jun 17, 2008 Yulia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Yulia by: Bibliomantic

Shelves: short-stories, by-and-of-japan

Hmm, these stories are so unlike what I'm used to expecting shorts to be like. They're like folklore or legends. It's quite impressive to think a once-living man could have created such timeless stories. Don't such narratives take centuries to shape, passed from one generation to the next by old women making yarn or silk thread?

*********************************************************

I'm not sure whether to be amused or annoyed that Murakami gives Akutagawa such grudging praise in his introduct...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Traveller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: orient, short-fiction, four-and-a-half-stars

I think I somehow missed the point of the Yam gruel story. I found the Rashomon story rather cruel and unsympathetic. I think I'll reserve judgment until after we've discussed these in our Brain Pain group.

Something that I definitely did notice, is that quite a bit of the original seems to be lost in translation, which might be partly the fault of the translator, but almost definitely also due to the fact that English and Japanese are two languages that seem to be difficult to translate mutually...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Clint rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

The first two stories, "In a Grove" and "Rashomon" I really liked, though "Rashomon" was a little too open-ended for my taste, as was most of the rest of the book. I've read one other Akutagawa book, and kind of felt the same about it, he's very strange. Not like surrealist strange, but "I can't figure out why he would write about this, or stop writing about this at this particular point" strange. The last story, "The Dragon," was excellent. Now that I know where a Japanese library is and I can...more

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Aug 26, 2010 marie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read two from a collection of Akutagawa's short stories: "Rashomon" and "In A Bamboo Grove". My first reaction was: he's so modern! The 2 stories are like thrillers, suspenseful, with unexpected twists. "In A Bamboo Grove" is a sophisticated story of an event seen from different perspectives. The reader is forced to think what the most plausible narrative is as the truth is left hanging ----there is nothing cut-and dried here.

The author's story is almost as fascinating as his 2 short stories,...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Rhys rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first Akutagawa story I ever read was ‘Sennin’, the first story in the Borges edited anthology *The Book of Fantasy*, and I was impressed with its quirky and ironic flavour. I resolved to seek out more Akutagawa, so I was delighted when I chanced on this Penguin Classics volume containing eighteen of his tales.

It’s a retrospective of his entire life’s work (he died when he was only thirty five) and divided into four sections.

The first section is devoted to his early stories. ‘Rashomon’ is th...more The first Akutagawa story I ever read was ‘Sennin’, the first story in the Borges edited anthology *The Book of Fantasy*, and I was impressed with its quirky and ironic flavour. I resolved to seek out more Akutagawa, so I was delighted when I chanced on this Penguin Classics volume containing eighteen of his tales.

It’s a retrospective of his entire life’s work (he died when he was only thirty five) and divided into four sections.

The first section is devoted to his early stories. ‘Rashomon’ is the most famous because of the Kurosawa film, but in fact that film is a confabulation of two Akutagawa stories, not only ‘Rashomon’ but also ‘In a Bamboo Grove’. Picturesque and brutal, they contrast with the trio of delightful fantasies that follow, namely, ‘The Nose’, ‘Dragon: the Old Potter’s Tale’ and ‘The Spinder’s Thread’. Ultimately these are the three stories I am most likely to re-read, for their charm, although I appreciate they aren’t as powerful or significant as the monumental ‘Hell Screen’, which closes this section. ‘Hell Screen’ is a dark and fiery classic, a disturbing horror story with a particular Japanese slant that is non-supernatural and supernatural at the same time.

The second section features three historical stories, ‘Dr Ogata Ryosai: Memorandum’, ‘O-Gin’ and ‘Loyalty’, all of which are worth reading but don’t really show Akutagawa at his very best.

The third section, however, contains three absolute gems of tragicomedy, the brilliantly odd ‘The Story of a Head that Fell Off’, the offbeat romance ‘Green Onions’ and the superb absurdist comedy ‘Horse Legs’, which is possibly my favourite story in the entire collection, a lighter-hearted version of Kafka with a relentless logic of its own.

The fourth section reveals Akutagawa in an entirely different light, as a tormented personality and depressive paranoid personality, struggling to keep a grip on his sanity. These stories are bleak and harrowing and difficult to read. ‘Daidoji Shinsuke: The Early Years’, ‘The Writer’s Craft’, ‘The Baby’s Sicvkness’, ‘Death Register’, ‘The Life of a Stupid Man’ and ‘Spinning Gears’ chronicle a tormented psychology and a life in despair. The last story reads almost like a profoundly literary suicide note, and in fact Akutagawa did take his own life before it was published.

Nine of the stories in this volume are published in English for the first time here; and the book contains a perceptive and lengthy introduction by Haruki Murakami together with a chronology and extensive notes. It is an essential volume for anyone who loves the literature of the past 100 years.
(less)

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Aug 21, 2012 Gijs rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, short-stories, asia, fiction, japanese, 20th-century-1920s, 20th-century-1910s

Bundel van zes verhalen van de Japanse grootmeester.

Rashomon (1915)
Ultrakort verhaal over het begin van een verachtelijke wending in het leven van een middeleeuwse man onder de grote Rashomon-poort in de regen.

In het bos (1922)
Niet echt een verhaal, maar zeven versies van een moord op een man in het bos, die telkens radicaal nieuw licht werpen op de zaak.

Kesa en Morito (1918)
Psychologisch goed doorwrocht, bijna existentialistisch kort verhaal waarin twee geliefden getuigen van hun huiveringwekke...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, japanese-culture, short-stories

i rented this book from the library. i loved it so much, the catch phrases, and such, that i wanted to write in it and develop my own ideas on it. so i went out and bought it. (can i say that borders sucks! BN all the way) 12.95 later… i know, right? i have it. though, not the version i wanted. why do all the reprinted covers look so much worse. and no illustrations! i just couldnt understand how if he died in 1927, he made allusions to the holocaust, which occured in the 40s. my favorite story...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Hilson rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite collection of short stories from any country. I credit this with opening my eyes to Japanese literature and further inspiring a look intot he country as a whole. The stories could be broken into two groups - the historical and the autobiographical. They are both interesting in their own regards, but I think that one intrigued by the 'romantic' Japan of geishas and samurai would be well-served to take a look at the first half of the book which handle the subject matter in direc...more One of my favorite collection of short stories from any country. I credit this with opening my eyes to Japanese literature and further inspiring a look intot he country as a whole. The stories could be broken into two groups - the historical and the autobiographical. They are both interesting in their own regards, but I think that one intrigued by the 'romantic' Japan of geishas and samurai would be well-served to take a look at the first half of the book which handle the subject matter in direct and very un-romantic fashion. Perhaps you may come away with a different perspective of the era. I am thinking specifically of 'Rashomon' (that, while different in terms of story than Kurosawa's movie version - that comes mainly from 'In A Bamboo Grove' - shares much of the distrust in not only humanity but one's self), 'The Story of a Head that Fell Off' (some of Akutagawa's most beautiful writing, though I feel the last section could have been compounded) and 'Loyalty'.

Be sure to appreciate stories like 'The Nose' and 'Dragon: An old Potter's Tale' (my personal favorite) as they are somewhat light-hearted in comparison and do a good job of breaking up the somber rhythm of the collection's first half.

The second set of stories 'Death Register', 'The Life of a Stupid Man', 'Spinning Gears' (a haunting read, especially considering that Akutugawa took his life shortly after finishing it) are of a very different tone and subject matter. I think that much of the trepidation and horror in humanity that was displayed in his earlier works is taken to a more severe level in these stories as the characters displaying these notions are not ficticious, but Akutagawa himself. These stories are displays of a popular mode of storytelling at the time called Shishosetsu (or the I-Novel wherein the author was the protagonist of the story (even if they gave the character a different name) and often reflected events and concerns that actually occurred in the authors life. Perhaps Dazai Osamu's 'No Longer Human' is the most famous example of this mode, though I think you could say that it has been utilized by author's constantly and outside of Japan (Charles Bukowski's Henry Chinaski comes to mind). As I said, these stories are not uplifting, but they very much show the sort of person Akutagawa was, especially later on in his career, a successful author who struggled to find redeeming qualities not only in himself, but he world in which he wrote. These stories are invaluable for anyone interested in Akutagawa's personal life.

A side note, Jay Rubin (of Murakami Haruki fame) has done a fantastic job with this collection. One of the best jobs of translation and editing I have ever seen in a collection of stories, his translation notes and introduction are extremely prompt, precise and invaluable to any reader (even those as brash as myself who presume to know a good deal about Japan). Many of the stories take place during periods in Japan's history that can be confusing not only to the foreigner, but the layman Japanese reader as well. Akutagawa is a notoriously difficult read in Japanese, he uses kanji and names that are antiquated and hard to read, his style and tone often reflects that of the period (perhaps 300 years ago), even though he was writing in the early 20th century and Rubin takes great measures to make sure that the reader does not get lost in many of the subtleties of the stories. While I give this book 5 stars on the merit of Akutagawa's stories, I wish I could give it an additional 6th star to credit Rubin's fantastic job as editor and translator.

A fantastic book and a great introduction to the world of Japanese literature, I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the craft of the short story or Japanese culture as a whole.(less)

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Sep 20, 2011 Sam Quixote rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Rashomon" tells the story of a "lowly servant" sheltering from the rain on the steps of a rashomon (outer castle gate). He has recently been laid off and sits pondering his future. He hears a sound and ventures inside the rashomon to see what it was. Inside are heaps of dead bodies from the recent plague and a strange old woman wandering about, going through the corpses' clothes. The servant attacks the old woman, strips her of her clothing, throws her onto the heap, and runs off.

"In a Bamboo...more "Rashomon" tells the story of a "lowly servant" sheltering from the rain on the steps of a rashomon (outer castle gate). He has recently been laid off and sits pondering his future. He hears a sound and ventures inside the rashomon to see what it was. Inside are heaps of dead bodies from the recent plague and a strange old woman wandering about, going through the corpses' clothes. The servant attacks the old woman, strips her of her clothing, throws her onto the heap, and runs off.

"In a Bamboo Grove" features a married couple and a robber. The story is told from the perspective of all witnesses and it emerges that the husband was murdered but who did it and why is the mystery.

These are the two most famous Akutagawa stories and are an excellent start to the collection. However, afterwards they become quite mediocre and even a bit tedious. The forced gothic of "Hell Screen" plods along until a near hysterical ending that undermines the seriousness of the story, that of obssession and the artistic mind. "The Nose" is a very odd story about a priest with a very big nose, has it shortened, and it grows back again. It's one of those "be grateful for what you have, accept who you are" type tales and not nearly as brilliant as Gogol's "The Nose" (Gogol being one of Akutagawa's influences and, frankly, a better short story writer).

As the title suggests there are 18 stories here but those are the only ones I can remember. The last couple in the section called "Akutagawa's Own Story" are interesting, with "Life of a Stupid Man" playing with form and presenting an interesting take on autobiography through small snippets of a life glimpsed in passing. "Spinning Gears" is the final story he wrote before his suicide (pills) and is about the slowly disintegrating mind of Akutagawa. The desperation and mounting paranoia give the reader an insight into Akutagawa's fragile and fractured mindset. The strange imagery is also fascinating. The spinning gears he sees around his eyes confuse and scare him while at every turn he sees signs of death - a decaying animal corpse, dying people in hospitals, and above all his morbid fear of going insane like his mother.

I won't say I didn't enjoy the book as there were some stories here that were excellent, and whether it's Jay Rubin's translation or not, the writing was always of a high standard. And students of literature will find reading "Rashomon" and "In a Bamboo Grove" very rewarding as will film students who are interested in the work of Kurasawa who based his film "Rashomon" on those stories. But compared to other short story writers and other Japanese writers, Akutagawa isn't nearly on their level. (less)

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Jun 02, 2010 Bear rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Awesome read. It's like Grimm's Fairy Tales as told by Mr. Miyagi. Well, not really... but you know what I mean. It's dark stuff and as the book progresses, the stories get more and more autobiographical until you are fully enlightened of the mental anguish and insanity that caused Akutagawa to kill himself in his thirties. Most stories are a quick read and all of them are interesting and poignant. I imagine this is an excellent first step into Japanese literature for a Westerner as Akutagawa's...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Andrew added it

Shelves: japanese-fiction, prewar-japanese-fiction

The story Rashomon itself is beautifully simple, as is the follow-up story, which was the basis for the much better-known (in the West, at least) film. The collection started strong.

Akutagawa lost me with his deeply involved historical tales. Not only did I feel one needed a more thorough knowledge of the culture and history to get them, it's just naturally hard for me to connect to stories that are set in a realm of existence not only so different from me, but embedded within and defined by a s...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Walter Villalobos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fantasía y misticismo a la vanguardia

Fantástico. Palabra que describe cada uno de los relatos que nos plantea Akutagawa en esta asombrosa colección. Es supuesto que todos sigan un mismo patrón de plantearnos cuestiones mundanas y en muchas ocasiones sin sentido (aún mas viviendo en occidente) pero que al final siempre resuelve de una manera magistral, donde no solo influye en nuestra percepción del relato sino dibuja en nuestro rostro una leve sonrisa. ¿Por que? Porque al final no queda mas que...more

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May 20, 2010 Sam Kabo Ashwell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Very dark; madness, the unforgiving brutality of various periods of Japanese history, inconstancy to oneself, despair and self-loathing and alienation. A basic attraction to Christianity, twinned with distrust and distaste. The sympathy between tormented modernism and the floating world. As with Akutagawa's mentor Soseki Natsume, there's a strong interest in both Western culture and the superficiality of Japanese reaction to it, but it's a much less prominent theme.

If the introduction is to be b...more

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Mar 11, 2008 Yuval marked it as excerpts-read

I've gone through a number of these stories now and enjoyed each one tremendously; he comes across to me a lot like the proto-absurd, tragicomic Japanese Gogol (but maybe it's Akutagawa's own "Nose" that makes me think so). I didn't get to all of the stories in this edition but hope to dip back into it in the future.

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Nov 21, 2012 Olivia Z rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've been having trouble focusing lately. My attention span hardly stays unbroken for minutes at a time, and it's given me a hard time reading. And so I'm reading short stories. The latest story collection in the row has been Rashomon. For the most of the time, it has managed to keep my attention.

However, I unfortunately found many of the stories flat, in a peculiar way. Through many of them I felt unfazed, as if watching the stories play out from behind a screen instead of sinking into them. I...more I've been having trouble focusing lately. My attention span hardly stays unbroken for minutes at a time, and it's given me a hard time reading. And so I'm reading short stories. The latest story collection in the row has been Rashomon. For the most of the time, it has managed to keep my attention.

However, I unfortunately found many of the stories flat, in a peculiar way. Through many of them I felt unfazed, as if watching the stories play out from behind a screen instead of sinking into them. In books, I often look for an explanation, a truth, or even a mirror. I want a story to look me straight in the eyes, no matter in how many layers it is resting. Some sort of honesty, I guess (even though I sometimes love it when books lie to me, I fiend for a shimmer of honesty behind it all). This, I felt much of Rashomon missed.

Until the end, that is. The stories in the beginning of the book went by largely without captivating my mind, with the exceptions of "Dragon:The Old Potter's Tale", "O-Gin" and "The Story of a Head That Fell Off". But towards the end we enter a chapter about Akutagawa's own life, and this is where the book takes off. "Death Register" is good, "The Life of a Stupid Man" is painfully honest and beautiful, painting fragments of memories and moments that in some way or other made Akutagawa the man he was, and there is a certain frailty to the text that won me over. Finally, there is the last story, "Spinning Gears". Even though much of Rashomon wasn't in my personal taste, this one story made finishing the book very well worth it.

It is one of the longer stories, and chronicles what seems to be Akutagawa's last days before his suicide. "Spinning Gears" is a tale of the paranoia Akutagawa feels and has started to drown in; he feels that somebody is out to get him, every detail is a clue and every word uttered is a warning. He flees from place to place to escape the foreboding he feels, but nothing helps. It is a frightening and enthralling show of the human mind, and the verge to insanity Akutagawa seems to balance on is hauntingly relatable. This one story saves Rashomon, a book I otherwise wouldn't have cared much for. I'd say it is worth reading, as long as you stay for the third act. (less)

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May 26, 2012 aPriL MEOWS often with scratching rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary

The interpreted stories included in this collection reflect an intelligence that is well-read, perceptive and deeply aware of human foibles. Through the language of ancient Eastern folk tales, half of the short stories are entertaining and revealing. The author writes in the years of 1915 to 1925, in Japan, using Chinese and Japanese literary and cultural themes that not only educate the reader in Eastern literature, but also demonstrate that humanity is the same whether living in the East or We...more The interpreted stories included in this collection reflect an intelligence that is well-read, perceptive and deeply aware of human foibles. Through the language of ancient Eastern folk tales, half of the short stories are entertaining and revealing. The author writes in the years of 1915 to 1925, in Japan, using Chinese and Japanese literary and cultural themes that not only educate the reader in Eastern literature, but also demonstrate that humanity is the same whether living in the East or West, no matter which century the author writes about and lived. The way people feel about the mysteries of their lives is the same whatever the setting. At the same time, the different, distinctly Eastern cultural prism through which our commonalities present themselves reflect a Japanese view that is a bit mystifying, and very interesting. Fortunately, this collection includes two very famous stories, Rashomon and In a Bamboo Grove which were combined into a famous Japanese movie, from which Hollywood has wisely and not so aptly attempted to imitate in several variations.

(view spoiler)[For the record, in the story Rashomon, I believe the dead man, Tekehiro, is the most truthful in the short story. I believe he incorrectly read his wife's actions and motivations, but he spoke the truth as he understood it.

His wife, Masago, saw contempt in his eyes -I believe she misread her husband's emotion and saw what she feared most from him. She continuously lost consciousness and was extremely stressed. She had been raped, after all. Tajomaru was a braggart and a criminal, and probably did not feel he would be let off or considered innocent after his capture. He would be most interested in inflating his actions, so I don't believe there was a fight.

After raping her, Tajomaru, I think, added insult to injury and tormented Masago, only increasing her distress and her certainty that her husband would despise her. In reality (?!?), the thief only wanted to rape, torment and rob. She would have been wild with shame and fear of rejection by her husband, as well as having been degraded.

Tekehiro would have been dishonored and shamed by his impotence, greed, dupability and perhaps by suspecting his wife's loss of respect for him, which would lead him to believe she could easily want him dead for that, and thus be blind to how she might have been hiding her own shameful acts of wanting to save her life and the dishonor by going with the thief, who she believed wanted to take her with him (I think that's what he whispered to her in the short story).

The thief forced her to choose living over loyalty, so by his trick, she shamed herself by her choice of desertion. When the thief revealed his treachery, she was doubly humiliated - first the rape, and then her choice of deserting her husband. After the thief left (why would he untie the husband, realistically?) I think, unable to face her wretched self-betrayal and afraid of her husband's supposed need for revenge and rage, she did try to stab him, but perhaps incompetently. She was 19, a young girl. After she ran away, her husband killed himself in self-loathing. The girl's mom said he was kind at heart, and he was a man of honor. At least that's how it makes sense to me, given what I know of human nature.

Of course, uncertain narrators abound, so what all of us judges can go by is what we know of human nature along with the testimony. Akutagawa has made the reader one of the characters in the story, has he not? As judges, truth must be assigned as a probability instead of a certainty. Although I believe in my synopsis as the closest truth, Tajomaru confessed. I believe he raped and robbed and played a horrible spiteful trick in the couple which doomed the marriage, but as a judge, I don't believe he dueled or killed the husband physically, although he committed soul murders of two, perhaps. But he has confessed out of misplaced pride and braggedo, and I'm happy to condemn him for the murder, given no other physical evidence.

The author is so clever. Now WE know the uncertainty of determining truth of phenomena which is dependent on human interpretations of reality. I have become an unreliable narrator.

I completely disbelieve the Woodcutter. Despite appearances of being disinterested, his story does not make any sense unless you accept the complete dissonance of a young wife being more like a hardened psychopathic prostitute moments after being abducted, imprisoned, and raped, by an armed man threatening death and humiliation. (hide spoiler)]

Later stories included in the book, from 1925 to 1927 are more autobiographical or personal, and while revealing how similar that people feel about fear, stress, anxiety, and how we live within communal society, sadly, these stories show how the author is losing his equilibrium and peace of mind. It is difficult to parse out if it is the fear of going insane or if it is actual instability precipitating his emotional frailty.(less)

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May 03, 2010 Praj rated it 4 of 5 stars

Akutagawa known as the “Father of Japanese short stories” stays true to his designation with this collection of metaphysically refined stories. The rendered stories: - The Grove, Yam Gruel, Rashomon, Martyr to name a few; highlights Akutagawa’s preference for macabre themes of immortality, depression, virtue, chaos and death. These stories encompass a constant battle of skepticism prevailing over virtue of morality v/s existence of evil.

In Rashomon, the act of the ghoulish old woman picking ou...more

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Jun 17, 2009 Jasmine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese

This book is amazing the stories are fun. I got the more from the library with 7 stories so I am currently waiting for the one with 17 then I will have a more firm opinion.

Weirdly Akutagawa wiki site doesn't say he committed suicide.

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Nov 08, 2012 Josh Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Don't just read it just because you liked the movie - which is actually a greatly expanded fusion of the first two stories. But do read it, maybe.

This is a decent collection of stories that range from from dark (a man watches his beloved daughter tied up and set on fire in a carriage) to very dark (the last section is essentially an extended suicide note). Interestingly the book reads much like Western fiction from the early 20th century - I was reminded of Kafka in places - which isn't too surp...more

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Jul 15, 2010 daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

i did it! i finished the story! the sun should be coming up any minute now. i hear the chill-sounding crow of the rooster outside, but why do i feel depressed even though i've managed to finish writing this? o-kimi made it back unscathed to her room over the beauty parlor that night, but unless she stops waiting on tables at the cafe, there's no saying she won't go out with tanaka alone again. and when i think of what might happen then - no, what happens then will happen then. no amount of worry...more

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May 03, 2013 Q. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I thing that writing short stories is a difficult task. There is pressure to make the story meaningful, keep it short and yet maintain the flow of writing. These stories, though set in an unfamiliar culture (I've read very little Japanese literature) had the power in them to stir the reader emotionally. Some stories are a master piece! They are brilliant, told in a way that you will remember for the rest of your life. Others are still powerful in their seeming insignificance. The stories are pic...more

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Aug 26, 2012 George Leach rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting short fiction from a troubled writer. Akutagawa's stories peak around the late 1910s, particularly the story 'Hell Screen'. After that his stories become increasingly autobiographic, detailing his increasing paranoia and disconnection. Eventually his mental illness would become too much and, in 1925, he committed suicide. That illness is increasingly evident in the posthumorous publications of 'The Life of a Stupid Man' and 'Spinning Gears', the latter in particular.

Either way this i...more

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About Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke or Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川龍之介) was one of the first prewar Japanese writers to achieve a wide foreign readership, partly because of his technical virtuosity, partly because his work seemed to represent imaginative fiction as opposed to the mundane accounts of the I-novelists of the time, partly because of his brilliant joining of traditional material to a modern sensibility, an...more Akutagawa Ryūnosuke or Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川龍之介) was one of the first prewar Japanese writers to achieve a wide foreign readership, partly because of his technical virtuosity, partly because his work seemed to represent imaginative fiction as opposed to the mundane accounts of the I-novelists of the time, partly because of his brilliant joining of traditional material to a modern sensibility, and partly because of film director Kurosawa Akira's masterful adaptation of two of his short stories for the screen.

Akutagawa was born in the Kyōbashi district Tokyo as the eldest son of a dairy operator named Shinbara Toshizō and his wife Fuku. He was named "Ryūnosuke" ("Dragon Offshoot") because he was born in the Year of the Dragon, in the Month of the Dragon, on the Day of the Dragon, and at the Hour of the Dragon (8 a.m.). Seven months after Akutagawa's birth, his mother went insane and he was adopted by her older brother, taking the Akutagawa family name. Despite the shadow this experience cast over Akutagawa's life, he benefited from the traditional literary atmosphere of his uncle's home, located in what had been the "downtown" section of Edo.

At school Akutagawa was an outstanding student, excelling in the Chinese classics. He entered the First High School in 1910, striking up relationships with such classmates as Kikuchi Kan, Kume Masao, Yamamoto Yūzō, and Tsuchiya Bunmei. Immersing himself in Western literature, he increasingly came to look for meaning in art rather than in life. In 1913, he entered Tokyo Imperial University, majoring in English literature. The next year, Akutagawa and his former high school friends revived the journal Shinshichō (New Currents of Thought), publishing translations of William Butler Yeats and Anatole France along with original works of their own. Akutagawa published the story Rashōmon in the magazine Teikoku bungaku (Imperial Literature) in 1915. The story, which went largely unnoticed, grew out of the egoism Akutagawa confronted after experiencing disappointment in love. The same year, Akutagawa started going to the meetings held every Thursday at the house of Natsume Sōseki, and thereafter considered himself Sōseki's disciple.

The lapsed Shinshichō was revived yet again in 1916, and Sōseki lavished praise on Akutagawa's story Hana (The Nose) when it appeared in the first issue of that magazine. After graduating from Tokyo University, Akutagawa earned a reputation as a highly skilled stylist whose stories reinterpreted classical works and historical incidents from a distinctly modern standpoint. His overriding themes became the ugliness of human egoism and the value of art, themes that received expression in a number of brilliant, tightly organized short stories conventionally categorized as Edo-mono (stories set in the Edo period), ōchō-mono (stories set in the Heian period), Kirishitan-mono (stories dealing with premodern Christians in Japan), and kaika-mono (stories of the early Meiji period). The Edo-mono include Gesaku zanmai (A Life Devoted to Gesaku, 1917) and Kareno-shō (Gleanings from a Withered Field, 1918); the ōchō-mono are perhaps best represented by Jigoku hen (Hell Screen, 1918); the Kirishitan-mono include Hokōnin no shi (The Death of a Christian, 1918), and kaika-mono include Butōkai(The Ball, 1920).

Akutagawa married Tsukamoto Fumiko in 1918 and the following year left his post as English instructor at the naval academy in Yokosuka, becoming an employee of the Mainichi Shinbun. This period was a productive one, as has already been noted, and the success of stories like Mikan (Mandarin Oranges, 1919) and Aki (Autumn, 1920) prompted him to turn his attention increasingly to modern materials. This, along with the introspection occasioned by growing health and nervous problems, resulted in a series of autobiographically-based stories known as Yasukichi-mono, after the name of the main character. Works such as Daidōji Shinsuke no hansei(The Early Life of Daidōji Shin(less)

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“A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than mere spectators of life.” — 964 people liked it

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